What Does ACS Do?

Vashon ACS (Vashon Auxiliary Communications Service) provides emergency communication services in support of other emergency support organizations (such as CERT).  ACS trains volunteers on the use of radio equipment during emergencies and maintains caches of emergency radios and associated equipment.  We can provide net control of teams communicating by radio, interoperability relays, and email over radio when the internet is down.

Contact Us

Contact us by radio:

If you have a FRS/GMRS radio, it is suggested that you use channel 2 (with privacy codes off) to communicate with other islanders. Be aware that GMRS (and more so, FRS) have a very limited range of ~1-4 miles (outdoors, with a clear line of sight to the recieving station) or much less depending on many factors.

 

After a disaster, licensed amateur radio operators can communicate with the local active ARES group (organized as part of the VMIRC) or Vashon EOC over these frequencies:

  • W7VMI repeater – 443.5 MHz (+5 MHz, 103.5 Hz tone)
  • ARES Simplex – 147.52 MHz
  • ARES Backup Simplex – 146.50 MHz

 

Frequency Lists

Here are ACS’s suggested standard frequencies. These are dated April 11, 2019.

 

How Can I Learn More?

Learn more by visiting the Vashon-Maury Island Radio Club website: www.W7VMI.org, or contact the ACS leadership directly via email at ACS@vashonbeprepared.org.

 

If you are interested in participating, please join our group at https://groups.io/g/W7VMI and introduce yourself, your callsign (if any) and any areas of special interest and expertise, especially with any of the following:

 

  • Emergency communication
  • Field communication
  • Radio communication
  • Emergency management (EOC)
  • Emergency response (CERT)
  • ICS
  • FEMA
  • Served Agency experience
  • Telecommunications
  • WiFi
  • Computing Technology
  • Local Area Network Administration
  • GIS
  • GPS
  • Microwave radio

 

Periodic Vashon ARES & Vashon ACS Radio Communication Training

To continue with the practice session we began in October 2014, we run periodic emergency radio training sessions, which are announced through our Groups.io email reflector and shown on our Groups.io calendar.

 

As well as providing training, we will give advice and demonstrate different types of emergency radio equipment. If you have anything you would like us to cover, or have questions, we can answer those too.

 

You may notice that these sessions are being run under the joint banner of Vashon ARES/Vashon ACS.